Bill-payers
can expect to save as much as £900 per year on their gas and
electricity by joining GM Fair Energy, which uses people power to get
the best price from energy companies.

More than 35,000 people have signed up to Greater Manchester’s
first-ever energy-switching scheme – making it the biggest of its
kind in the country.

Bill-payers
can expect to save as much as £900 per year on their gas and
electricity by joining GM Fair Energy, which uses people power to get
the best price from energy companies.

ScottishPower,
Ovo and Co-operative Energy were all successful in bidding for the
business of bill-payers in a so-called ‘reverse auction’ in which
providers competed to offer the best price.

Bosses of
the scheme – which closed to applicants last week – will now
offer new deals to everyone who signed up over the next few days.

They
believe bill-payers will save an average of £122 on an annual
dual-fuel bill, with one customer saving £892 on their gas and
electricity.

In total,
35,386 people registered with GM Fair Energy – potentially saving a
total of £3.1m between them if they all take up the deal.

Scheme
organisers also point to the number of people on pre-payment meters –
often used by people on lower incomes – who signed up, with one
customer potentially saving £122.

The scheme
was launched at the beginning of January by all 10 Greater Manchester
councils – with the support of the M.E.N – after a similar scheme
in Oldham proved a success.

Sir Richard
Leese, leader of Manchester council and chairman of the Greater
Manchester Low Carbon Hub, said: “This has been the most successful
scheme of its kind, with Greater Manchester residents saving more
than £3m from their
bills.

“The
sheer number of people who registered demonstrates the appetite there
currently is for projects of this kind, while the fact that one of
the ‘big six’ energy companies, ScottishPower, successfully
joined the auction shows that the industry is now taking schemes like
this seriously.”

Another
energy switching scheme will be launched in the spring – please
keep checking the M.E.N and the gmfairenergy.com website, for
details.

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